Brief:

• Hair salon chain Great Clips updated its mobile app with a "haircut reminder" element and an integration with Siri Shortcuts, a new feature in Apple’s iOS 12 that lets iPhone users activate a series of actions with a single verbal command. The updated app can help customers put their names on a salon's waitlist and receive updated wait times after checking in, per a statement.
• Siri Shortcuts lets Great Clips customers say a command like "Siri, check me into my favorite salon" to open the Great Clips app and check into a previously selected "favorite" salon location.
• Great Clips' haircut reminder feature lets both iOS and Android users set a date and time to receive a notification to visit a local salon. The reminder lets app users begin the check-in process or hit "snooze" to be reminded later.

Insight:

Great Clips is the latest brand to update its app with Apple's new Siri Shortcuts feature, which could change how consumers interact with brands on their phone since the virtual assistant is now more customizable. The updated app helps to maintain relationships with its mobile-first customers by reminding them to check into a nearby salon automatically. The integration also helps ease the friction of checking in by combining several actions into a single voice command.

Marketers are quickly adding Siri Shortcuts to their apps to take advantage of the new feature, which Apple introduced during its developers conference that showcased iOS 12, which was officially released on Sept. 17. Travel site Kayak this week updated its app with a Shortcut that lets users program Siri to look up a travel itinerary or hotel reservation with a simple phrase like "travel plans." Other apps that have added Siri Shortcuts include Citymapper, Halide, The Weather Channel, Pandora, Sky Guide and Trello.

While Apple was a pioneer in the voice assistant technology with the introduction of Siri in 2011, the tech giant has seen competitors quickly catch up with their own voice technology. Siri Shortcuts helps to bring Apple in line with rivals such as Amazon and Google. Amazon in March introduced a feature to its Alexa voice assistant called Follow-Up mode that can handle multiple tasks with a single voice command. Google last year added multiple task support to its voice-enabled Google Assistant, pointing to the increasingly competitive space.